BLOOD MAGIC | G. WEASLEY

72 - Reconsideration

musical mood: xoxo - somi

Cassie had said not to expect much, but George hadn't a clue what that meant. Don't expect to get back together? Sure, he didn't think that would happen, no matter how much he prayed it would. Don't expect her forgiveness? Was she even still pissed at him, for calling her mad all those months ago, when they'd broken up? She must be, since she'd been ignoring him so much. He couldn't see any other reason she may have to do so.

He'd been sitting on a couch in the Shrieking Shack for over an hour, tapping his shoes on the wooden floor, anxiously waiting for Cassie to come.

Part of him didn't think she'd show. Cassie had never been one to stand someone up before, but she'd been so different, the last time he'd spoken to her in person. It was like she was a whole new person, not the Cassie he'd fallen in love with. Something had happened, while she had been away, that was only partially to do with Connor. He could just tell.

Eventually, just as he was about to leave, the door to the shack swung open, and in walked Cassie.

His stomach did a backflip.

She was drenched, head to toe in what must've been rain, that had been pouring down from the sky since he'd arrived.

"Do you want my jacket?" Was the first thing he asked, noticing her shivering as she shut the door behind her. He didn't wait for an answer, as he shrugged off the brown jacket he had been wearing and handed it over to her.

"No." She said simply, and George frowned, still holding it out for her to take.

"I don't want it." Cassie insisted, and he finally lowered his arm, setting the jacket back down on the couch. "What did you want, George? Why did you ask me to come here?"

"I wanted to talk to you. It's been forever since we last saw each other."

She shrugged, her drenched brown hair flopping about as she did. He resisted the urge to run his hands through it, to pull her close and kiss her. The only thing stopping him was not knowing if he had her consent.

"So? We aren't together. We aren't obligated to see each other." She said those words with such apathy in her tone, George thought his heart might physically break.

"I know you, Cassie. You wouldn't have come here if you didn't want to see me." Truthfully, he wasn't sure, he didn't know if he did know the new Cassie, but he was so, so hopeful that his instinct was right, and that she had wanted to be there. No one told Cassie what to do, after all. No one made her do something she didn't want to, not even him.

She said nothing, staring down at her shoes, and he only just managed to hold back a sigh of relief. George knew that look, the look she got where she wanted to deny something but couldn't. He liked to think he knew every Cassie expression, and what each one of them meant.

"I believe you." He said, after a long silence.

She glanced up at him, brown eyes muddled with confusion. Merlin, those eyes...they were perhaps his favourite thing about her. That and her accent; her deep, raspy voice and the funny way she pronounced words like subjective and hell.

And her hands. He really did like her hands.

Now that he thought about it, George couldn't think of a thing he didn't like about Cassie. She wasn't perfect, far from it, and he was keenly aware of that fact, but it was her flaws that had drawn him in so intensely. Now, it was her flaws, the error in her brain chemistry that was threatening to break them.

"What?"

"I believe you. About your brother, that he's alive. If that's what you need for you to take me back, I'll believe you. I'll believe anything you say." He didn't believe her, not a word she had been saying about that awful, awful man since he'd had his soul sucked out a little over a year ago. But he was so desperate for her back, he'd do anything, including feed into her delusions. He could help her, help her see reason, if only she let him in. She'd let him in before, maybe she would again, and maybe this time, he could fix it. Fix her.